Several articles have come to our attention about the use of church facilities during the week. Dr. Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, wants churches to play a larger part in becoming centers for their communities. icWales reports:
Dr Barry Morgan wants congregations to think creatively about their church buildings and their wider use and to allow them to play a central role in regenerating towns and villages.
He believes churches can make the best of their assets and reinvent themselves by developing conference facilities, catering for school groups and offering services such as counselling.
He said: “A church that is closed Monday to Friday is the worst possible advertisement for Christianity.
“We cannot go on locking up our treasures in closed buildings any more. We have to open the doors of the churches physically, as well as metaphorically.
“This is about changing perspectives as well as reality. Too often we are perceived to be rather peripheral to the mainstream Monday to Friday life of organisations, communities and individuals.”
He said it was a way for the church to “move from the edge of people’s radar screens” so that the wider community can see the relevance of Christianity to their lives.
Read more here
In San Angelo, Texas CNN reports that members of a local Episcopal Church are helping provide food and lodging for volunteer attorneys for the children of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect, recently subject to a police raid on charges of abuse.
Read it here
In other items about church and community, Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, commends a new program called Say and Play
Involve and Lambeth Council are trialling a new method for consulting local communities. We are currently working with local primary schools to combine a fun day for young families with an informal process for consulting on Lambeth Council’s priorities. The focus is primarily on creating an informal fun atmosphere where families spend an enjoyable relaxing afternoon